LOVE: Part 5 - Is God-Fearing Love a Contradiction?

Christianity is unique among all religions of the world.  According to the Bible, God is a living and personal God who created all things and seeks relationship with us through the Gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. This relationship will last for eternity in a real place called Heaven where Christ-followers in new bodies will personally recognize and enjoy relationship with each other for all eternity.   Christianity is also unique in its encouragement of virtues such as unconditional love. 

According to 1 John 4: 16, God is love.  Love (agapeo and phileo) originates from God and is expressed most fully by Christ-followers through a spirit of thankfulness and forgiveness.  I am planning to discuss these elements of love in PART 6 of our series of articles on LOVE.  But first, I want to address an often confusing question; namely, “How can a God of love be a Holy Judge who requires that we approach Him with reverent fear?”  A correct answer to this question is important.  The Bible teaches that we cannot acquire a spirit of thankfulness or express forgiveness to others unless we first learn to approach a holy God with reverent fear and respect.

What Does It Mean to “Fear God?”
The Bible commands us to “fear God.”  This teaching of Judaism and Christianity may be an immediate “turn-off” for you unless you understand what the Scriptures really say about the fear of God.  Moses used the following words, recorded in Deuteronomy 10: 12 (NIV), to underscore the importance of fearing God (emphasis mine):

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul…

Notice the sequence Moses uses:  fear --> obey --> love --> serve.  He means that our love for God is made real to God only when we obey His commands in His Word.  In turn, obeying God as willing servants or stewards is grounded in reverent fear of God.  Fear of God allows God’s Spirit to empower Christ-followers to love and serve Him.

One of the purposes of the Old Testament biblical revelations of God was to teach fallen mankind to fear or show reverent respect toward Him.  For example, Moses reacted in great fear of God when he interceded for the people of Israel after they had sinned by worshiping the golden calf.  Moses wrote to Israel and to us, I was afraid of the LORD's fierce anger, because he was furious enough to destroy you; but once again the LORD listened to me.  (Deuteronomy 9: 19, GNT).  The author of the Book of Hebrews writes that when Israel gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai near the presence of God, The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear (Heb. 12: 21).”

Love God…and Fear Him?
But how can a God whose anger and wrath incites great fear be called a God of love.  One explanation is that the word “fear” does not mean that God incites unhealthy fear or terror.  But, try explaining that to Moses!  Based on the writings of Moses, there should be no question that he had learned to “fear God.”

 I have often wondered how a fearsome God can expect us to believe He is a God of love whose commands are worthy of our obedience.  I received my best answer to this question recently when I was checking the electrical circuit breakers in our basement.  Like most “breaker boxes,” ours contains two thick cables that connect electrical power to our home from outside utility lines.  The exposed wire within each cable is anchored to a contact within the breaker box by large screws.  From these contacts, electricity flows to and from individual circuit breakers, each wired into a separate circuit or path of electricity that serves to power individual appliances within our home—e.g. kitchen lights, furnace, etc.  Each circuit is protected by a circuit breaker which can be “thrown” in order to interrupt current flow in the event of an overload.

Knowing what I have just explained about electrical power, you can understand why I “fear” the inside of our breaker box.  I believe my fear is justified.  Touching the bear wires without insulated gloves could prove fatal.

By analogy, my question becomes, “How can I ‘love’ something like electricity that causes fear of death?”  The answer is found in the same sequence as the commands God gave to Moses:   fear --> obey --> love --> serve.  When I base my attitude and behavior on my fear (healthy respect) for electricity and don’t touch the wires, then I have nothing to fear.  As part of God’s creation, electricity “obeys” the laws of His creation.  Therefore, as long as I respectfully follow God’s unchanging laws governing electricity, I am safe from harm.  There are no unwanted surprises and I am free to enjoy, even “love” the benefits of having electricity flowing in and around me in our home.  Likewise, as Moses teaches us in the Scripture cited above, Jehovah God loves us and desires that we learn to love Him in return.  But we can only learn to love God when we first become aware of His awesome power and discipline, and then respond by offering Him our reverent fear and respect.

Fear Those in Authority Over Us
My illustration of a healthy fear and respect for electricity also applies to relationships with human authorities.  The basketball player who has a reverent respect for his or her coach has learned to be respectful because he or she knows the consequences of being disrespectful or lazy.  Athletes who willingly submit to well intended demands of their coaches will often develop a greater love and devotion to them, resulting in a more excellent performance in competition.

When we learn to fear God, we can expect that we will experience God’s love and the benefits of His love and mercy.  Wise King Solomon gave us a major principle at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7

Notice that Solomon’s teaching is very much in line with that of Moses.  The progression is: fear --> knowledge --> wisdom --> obedience (implied).   When we submit in reverent respect for God and His Word, our heart and mind are open to receive both knowledge and necessary wisdom to help apply that knowledge in God-honoring obedience.  And, God interprets our obedience as a language of love for Him.  In return, according to the psalmist, God grants us peace of mind.  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them (Psalm 119: 165).

In recent years, we have been struggling as a culture to render necessary fear and respect for those in authority.  News reports frequently report incidences of disrespect and threats of violence toward authority figures including the President of the United States, high court justices, law enforcement officials, and school teachers.  But we should have no reason to be terrified of those in authority unless they we have broken the law.  Law-abiding citizens should know “great peace,” being free from the fear of being arrested.  If we want to live quiet and peacable lives, we ought to obey the law; then, love and pray for law-enforcers who risk their lives daily to protect homes and communities.

No Fear of God Brings a Fateful Future
We should not be surprised by the behavior of those who choose not to fear God and who refuse give Him the reverent respect He deserves.  For example, in Romans 3: 9-18, the Apostle Paul describes the traits of the unrighteous human race as unprofitable with mouths full of cursing, bitterness, and deceit; their feet are quick to shed blood, and the way of peace they have not known.  In 2 Timothy 3: 1-5, Paul elaborates the behavior that will characterize “the last days:”

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

It is clear that those who refuse to submit to God in fear and reverent respect according to the progression of  fear --> knowledge --> wisdom --> obedience (implied), are instead destined to a progression that we might outline as follows:  no fear of God --> rebellion --> foolishness, ignorance of truth --> dysfunctional life (as described above).  Eventually, a godless approach to life leads to hopelessness, despair, and fear. 

In summary, we have explained that fear, or reverent respect, is essential to obeying God and God-ordained authority figures; and also, to obeying laws of nature regarding its potentially harmful aspects like electricity.  Likewise, fear of God motivates respectful obedience to His special revelation (His Word) and His general revelation (e.g. laws of creation regarding electricity).  Our obedience in turn demonstrates our love for God and opens our hearts to His love and peace.  Read 1 John 4: 13-18 which underscores the security that is assured to Christ-followers through God’s Word and the inner voice of His Holy Spirit.


The child of God who is secure in God’s love is empowered to express unconditional love through two actions that uniquely authenticate his or her Christian faith in daily practice; namely, thankfulness and forgiveness.  These virtues will be the subject of my next article, “LOVE: Part 6 - Humbly Received, Graciously Given."

Social Gospel, Version 2.0 - Social Justice

Scott Allen, president of Disciple Nations Alliance, compares the current social justice movement within Protestant churches today with the Social Gospel movement in the early 20th century.  According to Allen, "advocates of the Social Gospel believed the church should be engaged in the culture, fighting against injustice and working to uplift the impoverished and downtrodden—all admirable goals. The problem was they unwittingly allowed secular assumptions to inform their theology of cultural engagement."

Fundamentalists reacted to the Social Gospel movement by emphasizing the preaching of the Gospel and individual soul salvation largely to the exclusion of involvement in social issues.  Consequently, the evangelical church was caught unprepared to deal with emerging social issues of the latter half of the 20th century with a biblical worldview--issues like racial injustice and sexual morality.

Allen applauds evangelical social justice champions for caring about social issues like poverty, racism, and the refugee crisis.  Because of this commitment, he believes the evangelical church can avoid the unfortunate sacred-secular dichotomy that resulted from its reaction to the Social Gospel movement.  

But Allen is deeply concerned about the evangelical church because it has uncritically "absorbed many of the assumptions and much of the language of the social justice movement—assumptions that veer sharply from a Biblical worldview.  As a result, they find themselves unwittingly syncretized to a false religion, one that works against the very thing they purport to champion—genuine justice."

I would encourage you to read Scott Allen's complete article, “History Repeats Itself.”  Then, please respond with your thoughts and insights in "Comments" below. 

LOVE: Part 4, Dying to Be Loved, Reborn to Love

The Christmas story may be considered the world’s greatest love story—a “true love story.”  According to the Bible, the Greatest Lover, Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” takes on human form, is born of Mary in Bethlehem, lives a sinless life of obedience to His Father in Heaven, and eventually gives His life as the “Lamb of God” to take away the sins of the world.  Today, as I read, study, and write my fourth article about love, I am struck by the breadth and depth and height of God’s love for people like me.

As we noted in Part 1, the love of God is “What the World Needs Most,” but many are looking for love and purpose in life in the wrong places.  In reality, both unconditional love (agape) and friendship love (phileo) originate from “Out of This World” because love originates in God.  Thankfully, we can love others “Because He First Loved Us.”   In fact, God was loving all of us even while we were still sinners, rebels rejecting His pursuing love. 

Although the Bible defines love in words, God’s greater purpose is to demonstrate His love, especially through the Gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Even when Scripture seems to define love, there is action involved.  Romans 5: 8 illustrates God’s love in action (emphasis mine):  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  From this principle, we learn that our love for God and our neighbor should not simply be in words, but in obedient actions.  John the “Apostle whom Jesus loved” challenges us, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth (1 John 3: 18).

What should be our response to the love of God through Jesus Christ?  It can be nothing less than a commitment to give up the right to ourselves so that God can take the throne of our lives.  In short, our response to God’s loving pursuit should be repentance.

My Response to God’s Love:  Repentance
When I come and look upon the Cross of Christ, I see the raw, naked exposure of the horrible consequence of my sin.  There, a holy God motivated by His love for me and for the world, yet unable to overlook sin, placed it upon the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.  At the Cross, the penalty of my sin was satisfied at an infinite cost to God—the suffering, abandonment, and death of His beloved Son.  Here was death of the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3: 18).  I can only come to God through faith and repentance. 

Oswald Chambers writes, “The bedrock of Christianity is repentance.  Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God…”  Think of it!  Because we are dead in our sin, we cannot come to repentance on our own.  Nor can we truly repent because we are sorry for our sin; or, because we want to try to live a better life.  Instead, as Chambers adds, “The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the Death of Jesus Christ.  Our repentance is merely the outcome (not the cause) of our personal realization of the Atonement which He has worked out for us.”

United in Christ’s Death, Raised in His Likeness:  Atonement
By repentance and confession of sin, we identify with the suffering and death of Christ.  But how do repentance and God’s atonement come about in a person’s life?  The short answer is that God’s Spirit is responsible from beginning to end.  Again, Oswald Chambers explains: “The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Spirit, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life.”  Chambers describes the true repentance which brings our atonement (think “at-one-ment”) with God as follows:  “Conviction of sin, the marvel of forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace.” 

"Then your love for me will be in them, and
I will be in them." - John 17: 26

I do not understand the atonement.  The Apostle Paul illustrates the atoning work of God’s Spirit in terms of our baptism or “submergence” into Christ:   Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.  And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives (Romans 6: 3-4 NLT).  Having been “born again” through the at-one-ment in Christ, the love and power of His Spirit within us compels us to love and follow Him in obedience.  Chambers concludes, “The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about.”

Set Apart, to Abide in His Love: Sanctification
Although we want to consistently obey, God knows that we still live in earthly bodies that bear the marks of the fall of Adam, prone to wander away from Him and His truth.  But if we have died to sin and become united with Christ in His death, we have all the resources of the Triune God who prays for us, loves us, and teaches us through the Word (Romans 8).  Personally, when I read and meditate on Christ’s intercessory prayer to God the Father, in John 17, I can feel the arms of God around me—arms of protection ready to draw me away from evil, and arms of love to welcome me into God’s love.  For example, in one part of Jesus’s prayer, He asks His Father to make us holy, or sanctify us (set us apart), by His Word (emphasis mine): 

They do not belong to this world any more than I do.  Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.  Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.  And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth (John 17: 16-19 NLT).

In John 15, Jesus calls those who would follow Him to abide in Him, or “remain in Him.” He said, I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15: 5).  This invitation to abide in Jesus is a love-based command to be obedient—i.e. to be a Christ-follower.  It is also an open-arms invitation to join in the loving relationship that has been eternally shared within the fellowship of the Triune God.  Consider this loving invitation in Jesus’s words:  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (John 15: 9-11). 

A Living and Loving Sacrifice, Offered in God’s Temple
I have been thinking much about how the truths of repentance, atonement, and sanctification should affect my day-to-day spiritual walk as a Christ-follower. First, it helps me to remember the Apostle Paul’s strong urging that, in light of the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living (not dead) and holy (not blemished or stained) sacrifice… And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…(Romans 12: 1-2).  Elaborating on the notion of our bodies as a living, holy sacrifice, Paul asks us in 1 Corinthians 6: 19, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

My second point in attempting to apply God’s atonement in my life hinges on the first.  If my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, then I should be continually asking myself, “Do I regularly strive to be conscious of the presence of God’s Spirit in the temple of my body?”  I think of it this way:  We have all been in a party or reception where we sensed an absence of the values and behavior that we would consider God-honoring.  If we are Spirit-filled, it’s as if we can sense that the Spirit of God is grieved by what is happening.  Conversely, when we are among fellow Christ-followers, the conversation and values being shared should be uplifting.  If so, there ought to be a bond among us based on our common joy in the love of Christ. 

What is my point?   It is this:  My thoughts, words, and actions should be such that my body and life as God’s temple are a pleasant sanctuary for the Holy Spirit to live within—not like a party or reception with an atmosphere that is godless and grievous to the Holy Spirit.

In summary to this fourth article on real love, God invites us to come to the Cross of Christ as revealed in the Gospels.  There, we stand in awe before this horrible scene of suffering and death where God’s justice was met and satisfied by His mercy and love.  There, God’s Spirit does His work--the conviction of sin in our life that brings repentance and the formation of the Son of God as we are “born again.”  With a new heart and Master, we continually exercise the spiritual disciplines (prayer, time in the Word, fellowship, and service) necessary to maintain our body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

 Chris Tomlin’s added refrain to the hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” is a fitting prayer of submission and repentance that leads to forgiveness and the embrace of God’s love:

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
All who gather here by grace draw near and bless
Your name

How About You?  We are all “dying to be loved” whether we realize it or not.  May your response and mine be to die to sin and self-ish-ness, and be renewed in the power of God’s Spirit.  Maybe you have never come to the Cross of Christ in repentance and confession that you are a lost sinner in need of forgiveness of your sin.  If not, may I refer you to Steps to Peace with God which explains how you can become a Christ-follower according to the Bible? Then, you can experience the greatest Gift of Christmas, Immanuel—“God with us.”  God with you!  God in you--through His abiding Holy Spirit.  And, if you have questions, please contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu

Advent Readings and Activities for Christmas

Riddle:  What causes a great amount of excitement and anticipation each year, makes us very busy, wears us to a frazzle; and, when it passes, it has caused us to feel depleted…and our credit cards are depleted, too?
Answer?   It could be the annual IRS deadline; or a number of annual holidays.  But I’m thinking mainly of Christmas.

Like us, maybe one of your biggest challenges each Christmas season is to set reasonable goals for Christmas and plan well to achieve these goals.  In this way, you can maintain your spiritual and emotional focus while having time to enjoy the “true meaning of Christmas.”  My hope each year is to enjoy Christmas not just on December 25 but in the days leading up to Christmas Day.  When the Day itself is all too quickly past, often the best memories I retain are in my anticipation of the celebration of Christmas with family and friends.  After all, “anticipation” is at the heart of the tradition of Christmas dating back to the Book of Genesis where God revealed that He would send a Deliverer to be born of the “seed of the woman” (Genesis 3: 17).  During the several millennia that followed, the descendants of Adam and Eve remained in anticipation of God’s fulfillment of His promise.  The promise was fulfilled by God’s Gift of a Savior, born in a manger in Bethlehem, and named “Jesus” because He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1: 21).

The approach that Abby and I have used to enhance our time of remembrance of the Advent (arrival) of the promised Savior, Jesus Christ, is to follow an Advent calendar.  These calendars are of different types and are easily found by searching for “Advent Calendar” online.   Most Advent calendars provide daily or weekly Bible readings which are often accompanied by a fun activity suitable for individuals or family.

Let me suggest three Advent resources for you to consider.  The first one invites you to focus on a Bible theme related to Christmas for each week of the four-week Advent season.  It has been prepared by our church, West HillBaptist Church, here in Wooster, Ohio.  The weekly themes, starting with “The Need” of a Savior,” are each meant to prompt us to reflect on why we celebrate Christmas and to consider how God would have us respond to His “greatest Gift.”  Please click on the thumbnail on the left.

The second Advent resource is from Focus on the Family and it provides a daily Scripture reading, a short readable commentary, and a fun activity related to Christmas.  If you would like to try out this excellent calendar, you can DOWNLOAD HERE.  And, if you would like a sample of the calendar, I have included the reading for today, December 6, as a sample (see thumbnail, below-right). 

The third Advent resource is one that I prepared last December.  It contains a daily Scripture reading and a short commentary along with discussion to help you personally apply the truth for each day.  This Advent calendar goes by the title, Daily Meditations to Enrich Your Christmas.  I hope these suggestions will enrich your celebration of Advent and the Christmas season this year. 

We hope you have a Merry and Meaningful Christmas!

Thanksgiving Topics for Your Table

Thanksgiving is unique among all of the holidays we celebrate in our country.  Those who believe in God’s providential role and countless spiritual and material blessings realize that we ultimately owe our thanksgiving to Him.  Granted, we ought to thank one another for acts of kindness.  But because we are stewards of God’s blessings, even the grace that inspires us to do kind acts is from God.  Therefore, thanksgiving is incomplete unless we humbly offer it in worship and praise to God Who alone is the Giver of every perfect gift that comes down from above (James 1: 17).

If you and your loved ones are seeking ways to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in a meaningful way that acknowledges American history and God’s providential role in it, consider using a series of questions that may pique the interest of both young and old.  Here’s how I hope this exercise will work in our family.

Write or print the following questions on numbered cards or paper.  (Or, you can simply print the questions on one sheet of paper and have someone be the questioner.)  Choose a time to sit together, distribute the questions, and take turns in the order of the number assigned to each question.   Allow time for anyone to answer and be alert to opportunities for discussion.  Answers?  If you don’t know them, why not search for them online, but be sure to double-check your sources for accuracy.

1.      What was the name of the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed to North America?

2.      How did the tradition of having turkey on Thanksgiving begin?

3.      How many different American Thanksgiving traditions can you name? [See how long you can keep it going around the table or group.]

4.      Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

5.      Why did the Pilgrims dress in dark, drab clothing?  [Suggestion: Pause for answers.  Then, ask if this stereotype is true.  See photos.]

6.      Which of the following is true of the Thanksgiving celebration by the Pilgrims, in 1621?
a.   Celebrating thanksgiving for the harvest was a tradition they brought from Europe.

b.   Their Native American friends (the Wampanoag’s) also had a Thanksgiving tradition.
c.    On their “First Thanksgiving” at Plymouth, 53 Pilgrims were joined by 90 Native Americans.
d.    At the time, numerous cultures in the world already practiced Thanksgiving celebrations.
e.    All of the above are true.

7.   Why did the Pilgrims decide to leave England?

      8.   Where did the Pilgrims land on their voyage from England?

      9.   What are the names of the two turkeys pardoned this year by President Trump?
10. Which president of the United States began the tradition of pardoning turkeys, and why?
11. Why did the Pilgrims leave their home and their work to come to North America?
12. Why did the Pilgrims land on Cape Cod when they had aimed for the mouth of the Hudson R?
13. In the Book of Genesis, who did God providentially send to Egypt as a slave so that his family
             and the whole nation of Egypt could be saved from famine?
14. In the Pilgrim story, who did God providentially send to help them survive in the new world?
15. Can you name other people in history whom God sent to intercede and deliver His people? Hint: One was a queen.  Another is mentioned in Isaiah 7: 14 and Matthew 1: 21. 
16. What are you thankful for as you remember the events of your life in 2018?

Additional Questions: (Select to fit age/maturity):
Although our culture is very different from 1620, does our celebration of Thanksgiving retain the purposes of the Pilgrims?

The Pilgrims believed that it was very important for each individual to love and honor their parents, family, and church.   Children and young adults learned that it was very important to make choices that honored their family and community.  Has culture in America become different from this, and if so how?  If today’s culture is different, do you think it is for the better?

Why are the Pilgrims called “separatists?”  How did their approach to living differ from the Puritans? Which if either is more in line with your beliefs about how we should live in our culture today?

Suggested Reading:

Read an account of how Squanto was strategically or (arguably) providentially prepared to assist the Pilgrims in ways that enabled them to survive in “New England.”  I recommend Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas. 2012 (Thomas Nelson), a very readable and well illustrated book for children and adults.

Quiz in PDF Format:  Available upon request to silviusj@gmail.com

Learning Lessons from the Pilgrims

In November, 2020 we will be celebrating the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Harbor in what is now Massachusetts.  But why did the Pilgrims embark on this daring voyage from England via Holland to another continent?  As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, and then the quadricentennial anniversary in 2020, I wanted to be sure that I have the “Pilgrim story” correct. (See “Further Reading” below.)

Historians record that the Pilgrims left England for Holland in 1607 in pursuit of religious freedom from the Church of England.  Also known as separatists, the Pilgrims correctly believed that “the Church” had strayed from biblical Christianity in the years following the Protestant Reformation.  While religious freedom was their chief motive for leaving England, this does not explain why the Pilgrims left from Holland on the Mayflower, in 1620.  Robert Tracy McKenzie, professor of history and chair of the history department at Wheaton College, finds in the writings of William Bradford who later became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony what I will consider to be three reasons the Pilgrims left Holland for North America.

First, the Pilgrim’s placed high priority on establishing godly families and a community patterned according to their understanding of biblical principles.  Hoping to accomplish this goal in Holland, they instead encountered a morally permissive Dutch culture that made it difficult for Pilgrim parents to raise their children with “due correction without reproof or reproach from their neighbors.”

Second, over half of the separatists that came to Holland had to become textile factory workers.  According to McKenzie, in place of the seasonal rhythms of farm life they had known in England, the Pilgrims faced the work of carding, spinning, or weaving in their own homes from dawn to dusk, six days a week, merely to keep body and soul together. Hunger and want had become their taskmaster.

Perhaps the Pilgrims might have tolerated the moral laxity and harsh economic conditions, were it not for what they saw as a third, more fundamental reason for leaving Holland.  They came to understand that the first two factors were becoming a threat to maintaining a vibrant Christian faith.  To these separatists, their daily walk of faith depended upon a cohesive faith community centered around strong families and church.  Therefore, we should call these committed Christians “Pilgrims” and “separatists” not because they separated geographically and sailed to an alien land.  Instead, the two names fit because their faith in God and His Word had led them to view themselves as “Pilgrims” and “separatists” from a world whose secular values were in opposition to their beliefs. 

Having left England for religious freedom, the Pilgrims found themselves in a Dutch culture that threatened to smother their lives of faith with the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things (Mark 4: 19).  Maybe their “second separation,” a separation that led them to cut their moorings from a permissive, materialistic culture of Holland and set sale on the Mayflower, was a greater challenge than separating from the Church of England.  Whatever the case, the Pilgrim story provides Americans today with a choice of two Thanksgiving narratives—and more broadly, two American narratives.

Professor McKenzie challenges Christians today not to seize on the first narrative as simply “ammunition for the culture wars” against an unbelieving culture that undervalues or despises “religious liberty.”  While I do not deny that Christ-followers have an important role in standing against threats to religious liberty, the institutions of marriage and family, and other freedoms under the U.S. Constitution, we must not ignore the second Pilgrim/American narrative.  As Christ-followers, we must not forget that we too are called in the power of the Holy Spirit to be “pilgrims in a foreign land” and as such to remember another battlefront—one within our own souls, as the Apostle Peter reminds early believers (emphasis mine):

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.  Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2: 9-12).

Providentially, the Cape Cod coastline provided safe harbor.

Here, I must admit that as I write, I am “preaching to myself.”  I find it much easier to be my own political and cultural warrior against materialism and moral laxness than to focus regularly on battling the thorns and thistles that tend to grow and thrive within my soul.  So easily, they can crowd out my priority of seeking the peace of God and the fellowship with His Holy Spirit through daily time in prayer and the Word of God.   John Winthrop who led 700 Puritan immigrants to New England and was instrumental in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1630, preached a sermon entitled, “A Model of Christian Charity (Love)” in which he emphasized the spiritual disciplines that promote inner virtues and war against our fleshly selfishness:

Whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. 

After challenging his Puritan listeners, Winthrop gives instruction and his vision for righteous living in community of Massachusetts Bay.  His message also challenges me to discipline my inner life so my words and actions will showcase Christ’s love in my marriage, family, church, and government (emphasis mine):

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

In summary, may I apply Winthrop’s challenge to all of us who choose to regard this year’s Thanksgiving as a holiday, or “holy day?”  In true “holy-day” spirit, we must direct our “thankfulness” to God, the only object worthy of our thanks—not to ourselves or our accomplishments, not to America or her cropland, forests, fisheries, mines; or great leaders and past heroes, as much as we ought to be thankful for all of these.  Our ultimate thanksgiving must be uplifted to the only Worthy Object of our thanks: Almighty God.

In giving our thanks to God, may we remember the “Pilgrim Fathers” and their costly commitments to separate not only from a church that was ruled by false doctrine, but from a materialistic and morally drifting culture that threatened the integrity of their marriages, families, and church.  But, most important of all is the lesson for us is in how Pilgrims believed and behaved.  They understood that their primary role was to be witnesses of Jesus Christ and not simply critics of politics and culture. 

In conclusion, Tracy McKinzie challenges us not to ignore the aspects of [the Pilgrim] story that might cast a light into our own hearts. They struggled with fundamental questions still relevant to us today: What is the true cost of discipleship? What must we sacrifice in pursuit of the kingdom? How can we “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15) and keep ourselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27)? What sort of obligation do we owe our local churches, and how do we balance that duty with family commitments and individual desires? What does it look like to “seek first the kingdom of God” and can we really trust God to provide for all our other needs?  As Christians, these are crucial questions we need to revisit regularly. We might even consider discussing them with our families [during] our Thanksgiving celebrations.

Further Reading:
The following articles and two books are recommended as Thanksgiving readings:
Thanksgiving and Black Friday: Invitations to Develop Contentment (2011)
Remembering the “Yearning to Breathe Free” (2013, and edited recently for corrections)
Thanksgiving in a Watching World (2014)
How Do You P-R-A-Y This Thanksgiving? (2015)
McKenzie, Robert Tracy. 2013.  The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us…
Metaxas, Eric.  2012.  Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving.  Thomas Nelson.

LOVE: Part 3 – Because He First Loved Us

Welcome to Part 3 from my personal study and meditation on the love of God for mankind and for His creation.  As the songwriter expressed so well, all of us have a longing for “love, sweet love…” that which the world seems to “have so little of.”

In LOVE Part 1: “What the World Needs Most,” we considered the emptiness that results when we seek love apart from God.  But when we yield to God’s pursuit of us, we experience real love and are transformed by it.  We stop worshiping ourselves and plunge by faith into the infinite sea of God’s great love.  When we have become immersed (“baptized”) in God’s love through His Holy Spirit, all thoughts of ourselves being a source of love begin to dissolve away and our whole disposition changes.  

LOVE Part 2: “It’s Out of This World” pointed us toward God as the ultimate source of unconditional (agape) love.  John opens his Gospel with the claim that God’s Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1: 14).  “The Word” is God incarnated as Jesus Christ Who came to Earth over 2,000 years ago to show us God’s love and to save us from our sins.  Today, God reveals His love both through the inspired Word contained in the Bible (e.g. 1 John 4: 7-10) and through the amazing form and function of His creation (Romans 1: 20). 

Sunflower heads orient in the direction of the sun.

 God’s love comes to Earth like pure rays of sunlight after traveling 90 million miles—literally, from “out of this world.”  Sunlight warms the planet, causes plants to grow, and supplies food and oxygen essential for life.  Just as life on Earth depends on energy from an outside source, we cannot be alive spiritually and be lavishers of love unless we are transformed by the light of God’s truth and love as revealed in the Scriptures.

God’s lavished love still manifests itself through transformed lives of Christ-followers.  As we explained in LOVE Part 2, God transforms the life of each lost sinner when he or she hears the Gospel (“Good News”), realizes their “heredity of sin” (Romans 3: 23), and chooses to die to “self” and be “born again” through union with Christ (Romans 6: 1-14).  It is God’s love and grace that draws the sinner to hear and respond by faith to the light of Truth (Ephesians 2: 8-9). 

When God’s love works in our lives, we honor Christ and His Gospel in the sight of others who need God’s saving love (1 Peter 3: 15).  Now, we will discuss how God’s lavished love transforms us into lovers of Him and our neighbor.  The key to our spiritual transformation is hinted at in the title of this article, “LOVE Part 3: Because He First Loved Us.”

The apostle John wrote, We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19).  If we believe John’s claim to be true, then how exactly does God’s love transform us and enable us to lavish His love on the people and the creation He loves?  The answer is evident when we consider John’s statement, “because He loved us first.”

First, John’s use of the word “because” suggests that we ought to love God out of a realization of all God has done to redeem us.”  The Apostle John was moved to exclaim, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are! (1 John 3: 1).

Our realization of God’s love is elevated to obligation when we read 1 John 4: 11:  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  This ought brings moral significance because it commands us to assign value to God and to other people with whom we associate.  The moral and ethical reason for loving God and our neighbor is confirmed by the command in 1 John 1: 6, Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another….  Our love is only registered in God’s eyes when we obey His commands.

But there is a third element of our “motivation” to love besides realization and obligation.  The word “because” in 1 John 4: 19 also suggests that God gives Christ-followers an inner compulsion to love—i.e. “we love because we cannot help but love.”  When we come to the Cross of Calvary, realize Christ’s sacrifice for us, and obey God’s command to “love one another as I have loved you,” God’s Spirit creates an inner compulsion to love as He loves us.  The Apostle Paul wrote that Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced… he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15).

Philippians 2: 12-13 combines all three “motivations” for loving—realization, obligation, and compulsion (emphasis mine):

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

According to verse 12, if we obey God’s command (“work out your salvation”) in the daily situations of life, He “wills and works” His good pleasure within us.  Oswald Chambers wrote,* “God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly.”  As we take up His cross (or “yoke”) and bear it daily and lovingly, we are not alone.  We bear it in partnership with Jesus Christ (Matthew 11: 28-30).  The Holy Spirit in turn enables us to experience our Father’s love and good pleasure, and to share His love with others.  Therefore, Christ’s claim is true: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (11: 30).

Because of our willing submission to God, His love and power can work within us, producing fruit of the Spirit (i.e. love, joy, etc. according to Galatians 5: 22-23) that is pleasing to Him and attractive to our neighbor.  Again, by our analogy of sunlight, when the Sun’s rays warm the soil in the Spring, seeds sprout and seedlings emerge into the light through what botanists call a positive phototropic response.  That is, each seedling takes in the light energy and grows “in obedience” toward the light.  As tiny leaves enlarge in response to light, they intercept more light.  By the time the seedling has grown into a mature plant, it has accumulated enough energy and nutrient resources so that it can bear fruit.  We might say, obedient pursuit of the light (input of God’s love) leads to abundant fruit-bearing (supernatural output of love).

We can see that humble submission is a key to receiving and sharing God’s love.  Jesus used a “seed analogy” to teach how we must die to self in order to receive new spiritual life and growth.  We must be like a seed that falls to the ground and dies to itself (i.e. gives up its food reserves for the embryo) in order to enable the seedling to emerge from the soil (John 12: 24).  In John 15: 7-14 Jesus uses another plant analogy: “the vine and the branches.”  Speaking to Christ-followers, Jesus says in essence, You are like branches and if you obediently remain grafted into Me (Jesus) and receive my love, you will be filled and compelled to express My love to God and to your neighbor—even to the extent of giving up your life if necessary. 

In summary, we have considered how it is that God’s love transforms us and enables us to lavish His love on the people and things He loves.  The Apostle John’s point is this-- We love because He first loved us (1 John 4: 19).  If we respond in obedience to God’s love as He commands us, we are in fact showing evidence of our love for Him.  We will also realize that love does not ultimately come from us; it is from God as a fruit of His Spirit abiding and working in us.

While He commanded that we love Him, Jesus also knew what was in men’s hearts (John 2: 24).  Jesus knows that my heart is very prone to forget or deny His truth and great love.  I am prone to deny my Savior in thought, word, and deed.  Also, perhaps like you, I frequently face people and situations that challenge my ability to love unselfishly and witness unashamedly.  Therefore, I have been studying other passages of Scripture that teach what God expects of me in regard to his love.  In “LOVE Part 4: Dying to Be Loved,” we will consider how focusing on the Cross of Christ and His great sacrifice for us magnifies the holiness and judgment of God, and even more, the great love of God.

How About You?
Is there a point in your life where you surrendered to the claims of Christ and asked Him to forgive you and be your Savior?  If not, I refer you to Steps to Peace with God which will explain how you can become a Christ-follower.  Without Christ, you are dead in sin, cut off from the vine which provides spiritual nourishment needed to yield the fruit of the Spirit in your life.  In your unsaved condition, you are facing judgment for your sin and the “wages” of eternal separation from God (Romans 6: 23).  Romans 8: 6-7 states that those who are not at peace with God remain hostile toward Him because their minds are not "tuned" to the Spirit of God].  In fact, according to Romans 8: 7-8, they are not even able to do so... 

Maybe you have received Christ but your spirit (your "receiver" or "antenna") needs to be tuned again to the voice of God's Spirit speaking to you through His Word, or friends, or circumstances.  Ask God to help you turn again to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1: 9).  Then, as a Christ-follower, when you open your Bible and read, God’s Spirit will go to work to make your spirit and mind receptive to the Scriptures, and to give you understanding of the truth you are reading.  When you are receptive to that truth, God’s Spirit will empower you to respond to the Scripture for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3: 16).  When God’s Spirit can freely guide your mind and will, He will produce in you the fruit of His love so that you can love God and your neighbor as He intends.  If you have questions, please contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu
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*Oswald Chambers. 1935.  My Utmost for His Highest, September 20 (Dodd, Mead, & Co., New York, NY.)